Big Four player to take on 1,000 extra staff

The firm wants to grow its Yorkshire operation as companies here climb out of the slump, expand in emerging markets and do more work with the NHS and private sector healthcare suppliers.

David Buckley, Yorkshire senior partner at Ernst & Young, said the tax, advisory, audit and transaction teams would all grow but he particularly expected recruitment in advisory work.

The firm wants to boost its presence outside London and to double the size of its 300m-a-year UK advisory business. Two-thirds of the 1,000 positions will be filled in the regional hubs of Yorkshire, Manchester, the Midlands, the South-West and Scotland over the next two years and Mr Buckley said although the total number of posts is not yet known, it will run into double figures, including partners, directors and service managers.

"We already have a very strong advisory practice in Yorkshire, including IT risk, financial services and our market leading healthcare team. We intend to build on that success, by recruiting people at every level, from graduates through to partners."

Growth is expected to be driven by demand from Yorkshire companies looking to improve their performance in finance, operations and IT in the aftermath of the recession, as well as an increasing presence in India, China and the Middle East. Mr Buckley said set-top box firm Pace and premium sausage maker Cranswick were typical of the firms from this region looking to grow overseas.

Ernst & Young will also expand its health advisory group, which is headquartered in Yorkshire. The group works with state-run primary care trusts and large private sector health suppliers and contractors.

Mr Buckley said: "There is a huge opportunity to support both public and private sector organisations that are looking for ways to make their operations more efficient and improve performance.

"Businesses are examining whether, for example, their IT systems are underperforming, whether they should be outsourcing, how to embrace a low carbon economy, and in the public sector how to manage spending cuts and deliver the same or better levels of service."

The end of the recession has prompted fears that professional services firms will see their work cut as the number of bankruptcies falls but Mr Buckley said such a scenario would not hit Ernst & Young because of the range of work. Similarly, the number of high street firms collapsing has appeared lower than in previous slumps as businesses are instead restructured.

"There have been many fewer than expected traditional insolvencies. What happens now is more financial restructuring, where businesses get into difficulties but still have a large element of quality and with the vast majority there is something to be more than saved, but promoted. It saves jobs and helps maintain competition."

Its restructuring team recently worked on the deal which saw turnaround specialist Endless buy a struggling entertainment retailing business from home shopping group Findel for 1. Endless, a Leeds-based private equity house, pledged to invest 15m in Webb – which sells games, DVD and music via subsidiaries Choices UK and Webb Ivory Burton – which has been starved of trade credit. Now Ernst & Young is working with firms on restructuring, ranging from cash flow and working capital reviews to trading performance, re-financing and formal insolvencies.

Mr Buckley said the firm, which has its main Yorkshire office in Leeds and a smaller site in Hull, expects to continue growing in this region in the final year of its three-year plan but it was too early to specify numbers.

Its blueprint for growth follows similar plans from Big Four rivals. Last week KPMG announced plans to pay the tuition fees of teenagers who attend Durham University as part of a new accountancy training scheme. The school leavers' programme will see students spend part of their time studying and the rest working for KPMG, which will pay the university and professional tuition fees for each student, plus a starting salary of 20,000.

Last year PricewaterhouseCoopers hired 40 graduates to work in Leeds, Hull and Sheffield and Deloitte merged with Drivers Jonas, announcing plans to more than double the size of its Yorkshire operation over three years.

Call for audit market shake-up

THREE major City investors yesterday called for an over-haul of the audit market amid concerns over the dominance of the Big Four practices.

Standard Life Investments, Aviva Investors and Hermes want action to be taken to help smaller firms to compete.

Interested parties have been giving evidence to the House of Lords committee looking into the domination of the audit market by the Big Four.

The committee will decide if this dominance contributed to the failure to identify risks taken by banks in the run-up to the financial crisis. David Buckley, Yorkshire senior partner at Ernst & Young, said he was happy to contribute to an "open dialogue" on the claims.